Retirement History Longitudinal Survey, 1969 (ICPSR 7683)

Citation

Social Security Administration. Retirement History Longitudinal Survey, 1969. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 1992-02-16. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR07683.v2

Summary

This longitudinal study is the first in a series of six
surveys conducted to investigate the nature of retirement in the
United States and the transition to a retirement lifestyle. The
first longitudinal study to concentrate on the process of retirement
and to include change over a period of time as an object of study, the
six surveys in the Retirement History Longitudinal Survey (RHLS) aimed
at learning in detail the connections between worklife characteristics,
retirement timing, and the determinants of style, quality, and conduct
of retirement. This study was meant to gather first-year data as the
baseline for future trend analysis on the sample. To provide information
on pre-retirement lives and attitudes of respondents, questions were
asked regarding labor force history, retirement and retirement plans,
health, household, family and social activities, income, assets, and
debts for respondents and their spouses. Surviving members of this
original 1969 sample were interviewed subsequently at two-year intervals.
Labor force questions in this baseline survey covered the respondent's
occupation and attitudes toward that occupation, number of hours
worked, salary, and unemployment and job-seeking behavior. Information
on retirement plans was also elicited, including whether and when
the respondents planned to retire, reasons for retirement,
whether they had made retirement plans, such as moving residences
or working after retirement, expected expenses and resources,
workplace pension plans, amount of benefits, Social Security benefits,
and subjective attitudes toward retirement. Respondents who were already
partially or fully retired were asked to report retrospectively on
retirement age, reasons for retirement, and whether they had planned for
retirement prior to actually retiring. Questions on health experience
pertained to the calendar year prior to the interview, and included
receipts and costs of physical examinations and dentist visits,
hospitalization, prescription and non-prescription medicines, other medical
supplies and services, health insurance coverage and other resources
for payment of medical expenses, and a measure of the respondents' own
physical health. Questions were asked concerning activity and income,
including proximity and frequency of contact with close relatives, and
receipt of financial support from relatives. Information on food and
housing, transportation, gifts, and travel expenses was also gathered
to provide a measure of changes in retirement lifestyle. Demographic
items specify race, sex, age, marital status, education, income,
benefits amount, assets, debts, number of children and children
attending school, and household composition and relationship. Proxy
respondents were not allowed to answer any questions in this survey,
with the exception of spouses who could answer questions concerning
spousal labor force history.

Citation

Social Security Administration. Retirement History Longitudinal Survey, 1969. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 1992-02-16. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR07683.v2

Geographic Coverage

Time Period(s)

1969

Date of Collection

1969

Data Collection Notes

(1) The data file contains weights, which must be used
in any analysis. (2) The data collection instrument is provided by ICPSR
as a Portable Document Format (PDF) file. The PDF file format was
developed by Adobe Systems Incorporated and can be accessed using PDF
reader software, such as the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Information
on how to obtain a copy of the Acrobat Reader is provided on the
ICPSR Web site.

Sample

National multistage probability sample of 11,153 persons in
the United States in 1969. The first (1969) wave used the same sampling
frame as that applied by the United States Bureau of the Census for the
Current Population Survey (CPS). Sample members were persons who lived
in households that had participated in CPS before February 1969. In
subsequent waves, attempts were made to locate and reinterview original
respondents. If the original respondent had died in the intervening
period, a full interview was conducted with the surviving spouse, where
applicable. To qualify as a surviving spouse, an individual must have
been married to and living with the original respondent at the time of
the previous interview and not have remarried. Interviews were conducted
biennially through 1979 when sample members reached ages 68-73.

Universe

Men of all marital status categories in the United States
born between 1905-1911, or aged 58-63 as of March 1, 1969. Women born
between 1905-1911 without husbands were also included in the universe.

Data Source

telephone interviews

Data Type(s)

Original Release Date

1984-03-18

Version Date

1992-02-16

Version History

1984-03-18 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

Performed consistency checks.

Notes

Data in this collection are available only to users at ICPSR member institutions.

This study is provided by ICPSR. ICPSR provides leadership and training in data access, curation, and methods of analysis for a diverse and expanding social science research community.